One of our featured DAM vendors, Brandworkz, have added what they term a Social Media Collaboration Module to their flagship brand asset focussed DAM platform of the same name:

“Comprising an internal Blog feature and Who’s Who listing of teams within a company, the Social Collaboration module enables marketers to build an online community within their company, align internal teams, share information and create a valuable knowledge base.” [Read More]

From my reading of their press release, this is a blogging tool attached to a DAM system and of limited interest from a functional standpoint, but there are some points about it which are more noteworthy that I shall discuss below.

With good reason, a number of DAM users might prefer to keep their blogging and DAM solutions separate from each other. One theme I have observed recently is the number of DAM vendors developing plug-ins for WordPress, Drupal and EPiServer to allow those specialist WCM applications to access digital assets natively without users having to leave them to find media assets. Usually, I would advise my clients to avoid platforms that “kitchen sink” multiple applications into one suite in the way that Brandworkz appear to be doing with this update.

Taken in the context of their platform, however, this is more sensible than it first appears. As their name suggests, Brandworkz are far more brand oriented than a number of their more generalist competitors and their solution has been steadily moving towards offering a collaborative brand management solution for delivering brand assets and enabling participation in brand-related decisions across organisations. In the sense that their tool is more about developing and applying brand guidelines, some features to contribute articles from the same application portal as the place you search for brand assets seems like a reasonable addition.

My knowledge of Brandworkz goes back a few years and I believe at one time they traded using their main company name, Globusmedia rather than the product title. I gather they used to offer other related solutions, including one called “Contentworkz” which was a web CMS and a variety of other marketing oriented tools for email, web2print etc. It would appear that they are assimilating, or re-appropriating some of these ideas around the Brandworkz platform. This is a further variation on the fragmentation theme in DAM where the specialism does not result in a narrower scope in terms of the product platform, but instead a more diffuse range of tools and a tighter definition of the business functions which they will fulfil.

North Plains (formerly Vyre) have a similar strategy with their OnBrand system and SaaS vendors like Bynder whom my co-contributor covered in February are pursuing the same kind of clientele. Brandworkz seem to be experienced in this field, having been involved with DAM for well over a decade and well before analysts decided to invent the whole CXM proposition (which I still think is nonsense). Their CEO, Jens Lundgaard has contributed credible and useful feature articles for DAM News (along with other industry publications) and I am assured he has the experience necessary to grasp the direction this market is heading. What remains to be seen is whether they can translate that advantage to acquire new customers at a scale and pace necessary to stave off the threat from some of the larger competition now arriving on the scene, alternatively, will they still remain as an independent entity or get folded into someone else? Whatever the outcome, the commercial dynamics in-play across the DAM industry are now in even more of a state of flux and I believe they will generate some dramatic changes to the shape and form that it takes in the near to medium future.